First Space Tourist Readies For Flight

S T A R C I T Y, Russia, Nov. 25 -- For years, people have talked of traveling to space as tourists, but it has only been talk—until now.

Dennis Tito, who started dreaming of space flight when hewatched Sputnik’s launch as a teen-ager, who worked as a rocketscientist charting paths to planets, then switched to investing andbecame a multimillionaire, has a ticket to ride.

The fit, 60-year-old Californian has left his 30,000-square-footPacific Palisades mansion for two rooms in the Star City cosmonauttraining center in Russia to prepare for the launch, which couldcome early next year.

He has deposited millions of dollars—each one worth 28 rubles- in an escrow account, to be released to the cash-strapped Russianspace authorities the moment he is launched as the first spacetourist, but not a millisecond before.

That’s all in his contract, his ticket.

“The key is launch,” Tito said recently during an interview inStar City. “All they have to do is light the rockets and theescrow opens up and they get all the money. And it’s a lot ofmoney. ... There’s a real strong incentive, I think, for theRussians to fly me.”

Which Space Station?

But the question remains: Which space station will he fly to?

There’s a chance, however slight, it will be aturn-out-the-lights mission in January to the Russian SpaceAgency’s abandoned Mir. A suicide dive is planned for February, anda crew will be sent beforehand only if a problem in preparationsarises.

More likely it will be a taxi ride to the newly occupied,NASA-led international space station Alpha. In April, the attachedSoyuz capsule, the crew’s lifeboat, needs to be replaced.

Tito says the pendulum has swung toward Alpha in light ofRussia’s recent decision to ditch Mir. Either way, if he hasn’tleft Earth by June 30, 2001, the deal’s off. That’s also in hiscontract with the Russians.

“I just hope this doesn’t become some kind of a political messbetween the two agencies or the two countries,” he says with asigh at the end of the training day, weary from the uncertaintysurrounding his promised mission, not from the work.

Clash of Titans

A clash of titans, though, may be coming.

Yuri Semyonov, president and general designer of Russia’s RSCEnergia corporation, says he’s committed to honoring Tito’scontract.

He doesn’t need NASA’s or anyone else’s permission to launchTito on a Soyuz capsule to Mir, or to the international spacestation if Mir can be decommissioned by autopilot, Semyonov sayshuffily.